


Unbroken Song

by Escalus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Christmas, Christmas Tree, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28300536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escalus/pseuds/Escalus
Summary: For the prompt: "Theo as the Grinch in spirit and Scott trying to persuade him to have his heart grow three sizes and learn the meaning of Christmas."After the end of the world, Theo finds that survival just isn't enough, so he goes back to Beacon Hills to find something worth surviving for.There's always another chance.
Relationships: Scott McCall/Theo Raeken
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22
Collections: Sceo Secret Santa 2020





	Unbroken Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FluffyOtters1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyOtters1/gifts).



> The plot and the theme just struck me as appropriate!

Cold rain fell out of a darkening sky as Theo picked his way through the evergreen forest. In the quiet dusk, his paws left barely a trail in the thick carpet of needles. Perking up his ears, he picked out the movement of birds in the branches overhead and small mammals scurrying around in the underbrush. 

Tilting his head to the side, his tongue lolled out. It wouldn’t be too hard to snag a few voles, but he decided not to hunt. The rabbit he had caught this morning was still sitting in his belly. He wasn’t hungry; instead, he wanted out of the weather. 

He lifted his snout into the air. The rainstorm wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, and his coat would soon be thoroughly soaked through. If he couldn’t find someplace to stay dry, it would make for a miserable night. He needed to find a cave or at the very least a thicket in which he could take shelter.

He moved farther up the valley, trotting along while keeping an eye out for some suitable terrain, when he noticed something even better at the extreme range of his vision. Moving closer, it was indeed a cabin, which would be ten times better. He didn’t remember the last time he had slept in a bed. He yipped in excitement. 

The coywolf slowed down as he approached the cabin, alert for telltale signs of habitation: the sound of a human moving about, the smell of fresh processed food, or the briefest flash of an electric light. There wasn’t any. If anything lived in the cabin, it wasn’t human. 

It was always better safe than sorry, though he considered it possible that he was being paranoid. After all, there weren’t very many humans left in the world, and if they were here, they would be very unlikely to be anywhere near here.

He trotted up to the wooden front door. He pawed at it, scratching the faded paint, eager to get inside. He looked around to see an easily accessible window, because he wasn’t going to be able to get the damn door open with his paws and teeth.

Terror struck him right then, not from something outside, but from within his own mind: for a second, just for a second, he had forgotten that he, too, could be a human. 

Theo swallowed and found the mental trigger for his transformation. When he stood up, he took a moment to look at his hands before bending down to pick up the ragged pack he wore when in animal form. He tried to convince himself it was just a momentary panic caused by him being tired. He wasn’t really a werewolf; he didn’t need to tether himself to his humanity so he wouldn’t go feral.

On the other hand, he wasn’t human either.

The idea was preposterous. It was only a side effect of him remaining in coywolf form for … he couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had taken human form.

“Fuck.” He had to force the word out of a throat that hadn’t spoken language for a long time. 

Theo forced the cabin door easily. The place was empty; from the dust that layered everything, no one had been in here for at least three years. He suspected it was probably more than that, so it had to have been empty since before The End. There would be little chance of food, but the roof had held up and there was a bed with a mattress. The very thought of it made him yawn. 

But he glanced down at his arms and legs, which were filthy from running through the woods. Above the sink, there was a water pump. After he had worked the handle for about five minutes, the water ran cold but clean enough for him to wash. In a closet, he found some towels and dried himself off. It had been worth it to risk the cabin.

It still bothered him that he didn’t know how long it had been since he had looked like this. It became even more worrisome when he realized he didn’t know what day it was. Or what month. Or the fact that while he was pretty sure he was in the Rocky Mountains, but he couldn’t narrow it down more than that.

He was confident it was still 2025. With that in mind, he could work out the number of months and days, slowly piecing a timeline together. He had a good memory, and he had been trained to notice things. In one of the small cabinets near the sink, he found the stub of a pencil and a pad. It looked like that whoever had stayed in this cabin had used it to play Yahtzee, most likely with their family.

He ran his finger over the faded writing before he tore the old page off and tossing it aside.

By counting the moons, he figured out the month. It had to be late November. Last night the moon was growing close to its first quarter, so it had to be around the 24th or the 25th. 

“Oh. Happy Birthday to me.” He felt sick and sad. He had turned thirty-one perhaps yesterday or the day before, and he had simply not been aware of it. 

Theo had been grateful when The End came that he wasn’t human. He hadn’t died when so many others had, but tonight, in this small cabin, the pointlessness of his survival yawned open before him. He didn’t want to lose himself in an empty world. He wanted the passage of time to mean something. He needed people. 

But there might not be any people for hundreds of miles around, for The End indeed had come. In the great culling, only one out of every five thousand human beings had resisted the virus. Those that survived faced a difficult world where finding even basic necessities meant a struggle. They had grouped together, as humans tended to do, but they had also become even more afraid of the dark in the face of limitless death.

It wasn’t a groundless fear. The supernatural had always existed in the shadows, but they no longer needed to remain there. The End had not touched a single supernatural creature, even an artificial one like him. Suddenly, the world had returned to the way it had been centuries before, and many of those creatures who had felt the noose of the future tightening around their necks tasted freedom once more. They were the apex predators once again. 

It was for this reason that he traveled most often as a coywolf. Communities didn’t welcome strangers anymore, who were now seen as threats to scarce resources that could never be replaced. He had watched people kill each other over a gallon of gas. 

He had once or twice tried to find a place among the small groups of supernatural creatures he had come across, but many could sense his artificialness and had either driven him off, tried to kill him, or – worst of all – sought to enslave him. He survived by being alone. 

But the truth stared him in the face, and it was the same face he saw in the mirror of the small bathroom. Survival wasn’t the same as living. He needed to find somewhere to belong. 

There was only one place to go. He had promised himself that he was done with that town and the people there, but that had been before the End, and he had been lying to himself even then. He could never really be done with it. The only people he truly cared about lived there. The only people he truly hated lived there. Ironically, many of them happened to be the same people.

It was time to return to Beacon Hills.

**~*~**

For whatever length of time it had been abandoned, the cabin’s presence meant that he had to be near some outpost of the former civilization, so it didn’t take long for a rested and recuperated Theo to come across a road. Where there is a road, there is eventually a town. He took coywolf form again because he could simply cover more ground faster that way and headed west on the asphalt.

A faded sign welcomed him to what was once Syringa, Idaho. Less than a hundred people must have lived there, nestled on banks of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The town felt as empty as any other rural town he had come across for years, though blessedly the stench of death was very faint. Shifters like him avoided the larger cities, due to the havoc played on their heightened sense of smell by the door of hundreds of thousands of decomposing bodies. He had spent one disgusting week in Chicago about six months after The End had passed. He had avoided urban areas ever since. 

Interestingly, there were no cars in the town, even rusted-out hulks. It wouldn’t have made any difference, as there wouldn’t be any he could use. All the gasoline in them would have gone bad by now. He had heard that there were clusters of survivors near refineries, but they were far from Idaho and the people holding them didn’t make efforts at distribution.

He would have to run all the way to California. He decided he would take US 95 south to Interstate 80. As nature slowly reclaimed humanity’s works, the larger highways would be among the last things to go. Before he left, he took an hour to scour the town for anything edible. The less time he had to spend hunting, the quicker he could over the distance, and his hope was to make it to Beacon Hills before the higher passes were closed by snow.

If everything went well, he’d reach Beacon Hills a few days before Christmas. Or what used to be Christmas.

Checking his pack one last time before he transformed, he loped off down the road. He had many miles to go before he would rest again. Each day during this long journey would be tiring. He would have to travel steadily, yet make regular digressions to hunt for food and water. He would have to eat a lot where the hunting was good, because as winter grew closer, it would be harder and harder to find prey.

As the days passed in his great run across the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada, he would sometimes see signs of habitation. Thin trails of smoke would mar the mid-day sky. The night sky would reveal a distant electric light. He never got close enough to tell if it belonged to humans or to the others. 

He couldn’t say that he wasn’t tempted to check them out. His initial conviction wavered the farther he traveled, because it was an inescapable fact that he would have to face things that he had long tried to leave in the past. Yet he hadn’t shaken the epiphany he had had while lying in that abandoned cabin, that of all the places he had ever been, that shitty town had worked its way under his skin the most.

He made a deal with himself. If the going got too dangerous, if winter came on too quickly, he would follow up one of those signs of life rather than perish in the passes of the Cascade Range.

**~*~**

It turned out that he made it to the outskirts of Beacon Hills just as the first snow of the season began to fall. The coywolf paused as the flakes fell in the hush of a dying afternoon. They came down, thick enough to cling to his skin and not melt in his breath.

He hurried on through a dead city.

Theo didn’t catch a scent of a human being. He didn’t catch a whiff of wood smoke. He didn’t hear the echo of a spoken word. On the other hand, he’d been in abandoned cities before, and they had been nothing like this. He came across no visible signs of the plague, not even bones. Death had brought with it chaos, and always there had been those who had died in the open, unable to make it to safety or succor.

Still, signs of decay were everywhere. Store windows were broken. Grass grew up between the cracks of the streets. Yet there was little sign of looting, and no abandoned cars blocked the roads. It was as if someone had tidied up after the apocalypse.

Theo went first to the McCall house. It had burned down to the ground. He studied the ruins, and as he did so he remembered the lessons that the Pathologist had taught him. It hadn’t been an accident. 

He picked his way among the ruins. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone else, but he had been looking forward to being in that home again. His nose couldn’t tell if anyone had been in the house when it burned. It had been too long.

He moved on as the shadows poured out of the alleys as the sun began to set. A fire didn’t mean that the worst had happened. There were other homes.

The Stilinski home: gone.

The Martin home: gone. 

The Dunbar home: gone. 

His pulse quickened as he realized that the fires had all been deliberate, and that only the homes of the pack had been burned this way. The houses next door, nearly identical, were untouched. He pushed on, and he felt icy fingers of fear grab at the scruff of his neck.

The Hewitt home: gone.

The Bryant home: gone.

The Tate home: gone. 

Ashes and timber, allowed to smolder with no one putting it out until it went out by himself. The damage was so thorough that no one who hadn’t lived here before could have said which families owned those homes. Could it been violence against the pack? He had witnesses such things happening: desperate humans had become aware that some people just didn’t get sick and in their rage and desperation, they turned to violence. But this didn’t fit the pattern. Stiles and Mason were – or had been – human. 

Night had fully come and the waxing quarter emerged over the horizon to shine feeble light on the necropolis. Theo made up his mind to go to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital. After The End, for the sake of their sanity, people avoided the old hospitals unless they absolutely had to scavenge for medical supplies. When a new community arose out of the wreckage of the old, the first thing they would do is build someplace new to treat the injured and the sick

The old hospitals had inevitably been transformed into the domains of horror.

Yet, he had come so far to find someone, so he would risk it. If he didn’t, if he gave up, the only thing left to do would be to find someplace to wait until he stopped remembering what walking on two feet was like. He would howl to the moon until he couldn’t feel the loneliness anymore. So he headed toward the hospital.

It turned out he didn’t have to go to the place where death had won. On his way there, something appeared in the night that he didn’t expect to see: an electric light, shining through the darkness like a lighthouse calling passing ships home. He studied it, wondering why it had appeared now when there had been no indication of life in the city, until he realized from where it was coming.

The Hale loft.

Like a moth, he rushed through the darkened streets to the front door of the industrial building. He searched his memory for the layout of the building. The loft itself was on the top floor, and it had only two avenues of approach. It would be relatively secure, which is why Derek had chosen to live there, even though it had ended up not being that safe for him at all. Still, someone very familiar with Derek might have chosen that place for the same reason, and it might be someone he knew.

The main door to the industrial building finally loomed above him, and it presented quite a problem. It had to be locked, and Theo didn’t want to break it. He was so unused to dealing with human things that he nearly missed the sign off to one side with a rope next to it. Without bothering to read what was written there, he pulled on the rope with his teeth. Far off, he heard a bell.

Theo sat back on his haunches to wait, yet unpleasant thoughts immediately invaded his mind. What if the whole setup was on a timer? What if there wasn’t anyone home? Of course, that didn’t make any sense. Who would waste precious electricity on such a thing? Why would they put a sign and a bell if they didn’t want it to be used? If they didn’t want someone to come home?

While these things tumbled about in his skull, the door had opened. Theo hadn’t heard any approaching footsteps but the sound of his galloping heart could have covered them up. A square of yellow light framed him and the ground, slowly being covered by snow. Theo’s eyes, so long used to only natural light, were dazzled.

The part of his mind that told him he shouldn’t have come, that he was being weak, scolded him. He must look a ridiculous sight, a coywolf waiting at the door like a naughty German shepherd. 

“Theo?” 

Scott McCall loomed over him. Theo’s first thought was that he looked older, and that was silly because of course Scott would look older. Theo hadn’t seen him in years. Scott’s hair was longer and wilder than the way he had worn it in high school, but that was only to be expected. After all, there was no more hair gel or barbers. Scott must have razors, since he was clean shaven, which Theo could tell even as Scott stood there in partial shift, eyes glowing red, claws and fangs extended. Yet his stance wasn’t aggressive; it was prepared.

“Theo?” Scott repeated, puzzled and trying to get his attention. 

Theo remembered that he hadn’t said anything yet, that he couldn’t say anything. Instead he nodded, which must have looked silly on a coywolf, and lifted one paw. Scott’s scent brought a rush of memories of earlier times, and not all of them were bad.

Scott’s face had transformed back into human. He had his puzzle-face on, which he had when trying to solve a mystery, and then it expanded when the solution came to him. With it came a smile – his same old smile – which burst forth like the sun peeking over a mountain. 

“You’ve come home. Alright, let’s go in. You’ve got to be cold.”

Theo trotted inside as Scott shut and secured the door behind them. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, so pleased he was by his own cleverness. He had chosen to remain in animal form so he wouldn’t make a fool of himself. If he had met someone and they had told him what he wanted to hear, it would have been beyond mortifying if he had become overwhelmed with emotion.

“We have to take the stairs.” Scott led the way, as if Theo might not have remembered this place. “The elevator stopped working about eighteen months ago.” 

Theo followed him up four flights. After so much time spent running across mountain ranges, a few hundred more feet was nothing. 

When Scott rolled back the big metal door to the loft proper, Theo was hit with a burst of warm air, friendly light, and the smell of a home. When Derek lived there, the décor had been minimalist in design, but this was no longer the case. Now there were rugs and more than one couch, and the windows had curtains, though they had been pulled back so that the light from the room could be seen across the town. Strangely, boxes had been stacked along two walls, neatly labeled in what appeared to be crayon. 

“Theo?” 

The coywolf looked up at his host. Scott was staring down at him with a concerned expression on his face. He seemed apologetic. 

“Is there a reason you’ve not changed? Are you okay?”

Theo couldn’t put it off any longer, he supposed. He transformed, but he turned away so when he stood up he wasn’t looking at Scott. It wasn’t the nakedness; that had never bothered him. Theo had never felt vulnerable after a transformation before as he did now. At least it wasn’t raining or cold.

Scott complicated things by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Theo barely managed to keep his knees from under him. His legs were still tired from the long run, he hadn’t been touched in a very long time, and he absolutely wasn’t used to standing in front of someone who … asked questions like that. He had to say something, but he couldn’t make the words come out. Instead, he choked.

“Oh. Oh.” Scott lifted his hand off the shoulder. “Okay, Theo, take it easy. You don’t have to say anything. You can just nod or shake your head. Do you understand?”

Theo nodded.

“Are you injured? Sick?”

Theo shook his head. 

“You’re just a bit overwhelmed, right?”

Theo nodded.

“I get it.” Scott moved away from him to a non-threatening distance, and he placed himself where Theo could see him but Scott wasn’t making eye contact. “I’m glad you’re here. Are you being chased or hunted?”

Theo had to think back. He shook his head. No one had come after him for months.

“Good. You understand that you’re safe here?”

Theo started to nod but then he shook his head, fiercely. Scott couldn’t just say that. No place was safe. That was the problem. Theo had reached Beacon Hills, he had made it all the way here, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t safe. 

“Okay.” Scott licked his lips. “How about we say, that you don’t have to worry about me? I won’t let anyone do anything to you.”

Theo hesitated and then nodded. He was farther away from humanity than he had thought.

“I have a shower here, with hot water. I have fresh clothes. I have food. I have a bed in which you can sleep without worrying. Do you want any of those things?”

He looked around him. He wanted to know things, but he had forgotten how to ask. He fought with himself not to answer by nodding. What would he devolve to next? Stamping his foot like an intelligent horse? He forced a word to form in his throat. “Shower.”

Scott gestured for him to follow him. He led him to the bathroom. “It’s in there. Feel free to use anything you find in there. I’ll find some clothes that will fit you and put them right outside the door. We can talk when you’re ready.”

Theo took his time getting ready. He had been in bathrooms since The End, but this one was warm and clean, and the water was hot. There was someone he trusted outside, so he didn’t have to keep alert for possible danger. He discarded his pack to the side and stepped into the shower. A month of grime and filth fell away with the scented body wash. 

He sniffed it. He remembered this brand from before. Things like this still existed.

Carefully, slowly, he scrubbed himself down. When he scrubbed the dried blood out from under his fingernails, he had to stop a moment to calm down. Maybe the water had been too hot or he had stayed in too long, because his skin was flushed pink when he came out. There were towels. Soft fluffy towels. 

He glanced in the mirror to see someone he hadn’t seen for a long time. Theo’s reflection looked like he could be getting ready to go to work or to school. He ran his fingers through hair that needed a trim; it wasn’t as wild as Scott’s. Shapeshifting returned his form to what he remembered.

Sticking his head out of the bathroom, he found the promised clothes folded neatly. They were a little on the large side. Scott must have remembered his physique when he was younger. Theo was thinner now, though still athletic. Hitting the gym simply didn’t have the same appeal as it once did. 

Theo laughed out loud at the thought.

“I like that,” Scott called from elsewhere in the loft. “I was about to make something to eat. Would you want anything?”

“Y-yes.” 

“Cool. Take your time. I guarantee my cooking isn’t worth rushing for.” 

As he went through the stack of clothes, he found a pair of fuzzy slippers at the bottom. They looked ridiculous, shaped like beagles, but he slid them on his feet anyway. Who was going to laugh at him? They were surprisingly comfortable. 

Theo heard Scott doing something in a room, but instead of finding him right away, he took a circuit of the main room of the loft, poking around at the boxes, reading their handwritten labels. Shoes. Raincoats. Pans. 

They were supplies, and clearly intended for more than one person. A veritable mob could be outfitted in this room. Scott had been stocking things up in order to help refugees. Theo tried to smirk, but it came out as a smile.

He walked into the kitchen where Scott was busy over the stove. The alpha turned to him. “Almost ready.”

Theo paused to sniff the air and then said. “Okay.”

“I hope you enjoy this!” Scott crowed, pulling out two plates. “It’s my special creation.”

“I’m … sure … it’ll be good.” 

“Sit down.” Scott gestured to the small table. “It turns out that instant mashed potatoes last for a long time as long as they don’t get wet. Not as good as homemade mashed potatoes but I don’t have the time to plant a garden and no seedlings to get it going.” 

He set plate down there in front of Theo along with a knife and fork beside it. The chimera picked up the instruments, feeling them in his hands. He could use them; it would be just like riding a bike, wouldn’t it? 

“So what you have is potato pancakes stuffed with corned beef hash – less stuffed and more like sandwiched – covered with brown gravy. I call it the Red-Eye Special.” 

Scott laughed at his own joke and looked up to see if Theo was laughing. Theo forced out a chuckle, because it really wasn’t that funny. His mouth was watering though. Hot food had been quite a luxury in the past.

It tasted great. It tasted amazing. He began to eat, faster and faster, and it wasn’t just because he was hungry. Each bite reminded him of something he thought he had lost.

“Dude.” The word sounded weird out of an older Scott’s mouth, but it also sounded exactly right. “Dude, are you okay?”

Theo tried to talk around the food in his mouth, mangling the words “I’m fine.” Scott must have understood the intent but not the meaning. 

“Well, you’re crying.” 

Theo reached up and brushed the tears away and then he swallowed. “I guess I was really hungry.”

Scott focused on him intently and then Theo watched a decision being made. “It’s hard out there.”

“Yeah.”

The rest of the meal was consumed in silence. Finally, Theo put his fork down. He took a deep breath and released it. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“The meal?”

“You don’t have to thank me for that. I appreciate having someone eat with me, especially someone who’s a friend of mine.” Scott grabbed the plates and took them over to the sink. “It gets lonely here sometimes.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you here by yourself?”

Scott turned on the water. He must have had a pump somewhere; Theo could hear it start up. “Someone has to be.” Before Theo could go on, Scott changed the subject. “I’ve got something to do tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?”

Theo nodded. He didn’t come all this way to be alone.

“Then we should get some sleep. I don’t think the snow will stop anytime soon, and that’s going to make the job harder. I’ll go get you some blankets for the fold-out couch.”

The couch stood along one of the walls in the living room. Even with the boxes stacked along the walls, the loft was huge. From its location, he had a view of Beacon Hill's crumbling skyline. Theo unfolded the bed, stacking the cushions neatly to the side. It looked comfortable enough with the mattress, but he frowned.

“Here you go.”

“I can’t … I’m sorry. I can’t sleep here.” Theo looked up at Scott.

Scott peered at him.

“It’s too open. I … I could try, but I don’t think that I’ll be able to do it.”

“Oh.” The alpha thought for a moment. “Come upstairs with me.”

Scott led them up to a bedroom. It was far smaller than the main room, and it smelled distinctly of Scott. “Will this do?”

“Isn’t this your bedroom?”

“Yeah. We can share. I’ve done it before; it’s no big deal.”

It might not have been a big deal for Scott, but it might have been a big deal for Theo, but he believed he could handle it. Maybe. Possibly. Scott left to secure the building as Theo got ready for bed. He stripped down to underwear and then slid under the covers. 

The lights went out, but that didn’t bother him. He was used to the darkness of the night. His other senses more than compensated.

Scott returned and slid into the bed with him.

“Doing okay, Theo?”

Theo murmured his assent. Scott turned on his side, not speaking anymore.

It didn’t take long for Scott to fall to sleep. It was ridiculous. Scott hadn’t seen him in over a decade. Why did he think that it would be safe to be sleep next to him? It was dumb. Theo had been one of the people on the planet to hurt Scott the most, and here Scott was treating him like they were sharing a same bed during a middle-school sleep over.

A little voice spoke in the back of his mind that perhaps that was the point. 

Ever since Scott had opened the door, he had tried to make Theo feel safe. Feel at home. Feel wanted. What better way to do that? He decided to try to get some sleep himself.

**~*~**

The next morning, they trudged through the deserted streets of Beacon Hills. Snow had fallen all through the night, nearly half-a-foot. It had transformed the city, covering the buildings and the streets with a white blanket, hushing the ambient sounds. If he had been alone it would have been eerily unsettling.

Scott walked in front of him, wrapped in a coat with a hat and scarf, an axe swung over his shoulder like the woodsman from a fairy tale. The Big Bad Wolf and the Woodcutter in one package; Theo joked before they left the lost that he wasn’t the only chimera here.

“I can’t get over how … neat it all is.” Theo finally said to break the omnipresent silence.

“What are you talking about?”

“Beacon Hills. All the other cities I’ve been through have been …”

“Dead?”

“Chaotic.” Theo looked around. “Did someone go around and get all the abandoned cars off the streets?”

Scott kept trudging through the snow towards the Preserve without answering.

“It was you, wasn’t it? You pushed all the cars off the streets.” Theo watched Scott’s posture tighten as they kept moving. “You _did._ Did you also take care of all the bodies?”

Scott sighed. “I didn’t want to just leave them. They were people, not garbage.”

Theo blinked and sucked in his breath; he had mostly been joking. “Beacon Hills had thirty thousand people in it …”

“Most of the bodies that were outside I just took inside their homes or someone else’s home if I couldn’t figure out where they lived. I’ve been working on burying them, though most of them are just bones now. During the warmer months, I’ve been digging graves in the morning, but the ground’s too cold now and the backhoe doesn’t have any gas.”

“Why?”

“I just said why.”

“Who’s going to care?”

“Me. I’m going to care.”

They continued to walk through the necropolis until they neared the preserve. While the trees and the shrugs that belong to it were just as blanketed as the buildings, Theo could tell that it had leaped past its former boundaries. Eventually, the forest would claim the city. 

“Scott? Did you burn your house?”

The alpha just grunted, but it was an acknowledgement. 

“You burned the pack’s houses.”

“I did. I know it was wrong for me to do.”

Theo didn’t know what to say. “I think that depends on why you did it.”

“I’d been going through over homes and business, gathering stuff that people might need, cleaning things up. And I thought about … I thought about some stranger going through my house and Stiles’s house, and … you know. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone going through my mom’s dresser to find her underwear. So I burned them.” 

Theo didn’t say anything. He wanted to ask the most appropriate question, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I know I’m a hypocrite.” 

“I think you can be forgiven for that, just this once.”

Scott turned his head sharply to look back at him; he narrowed his eyes to see if Theo was mocking him. 

Theo laughed at him. “If that’s the worst thing you’ve done, Scott, you’re ahead of almost everyone else.”

“No.” Scott turned away.

“What?”

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve done.”

The Preserve swallowed them up and they were out in the wilderness once again. Even in the middle of winter, Theo could tell that these wood were alive. In fact, it felt more alive than most of the forests he had explored in the last few years, and he had been in some ancient ones. 

More than that, it felt aware.

It didn’t take long for them to reach their first destination. In the heart of a grove it stood, looking almost exactly the same as it had before, but it felt very different. Theo could feel his nerves tingle with the power contained here. 

The power of the Nemeton.

“Is it me or--?”

“It’s stronger than before. It doesn’t look it, but the roots have grown; you can’t get into the cellar anymore, even with a ladder. The roots might cover the whole forest, and I think it’s reached the city.” Scott explained, sadly. “I dream about this stump almost every night now. With everything else gone, it remains, as it always will.”

“Is that why you stayed?”

“It’s one of the reasons. It’s still a beacon. Supernatural creatures will still be drawn to it. Some of them will need help; someone needs to help them. Some of them will try to use it for power; someone needs to stop them.”

“Power?” Theo asked out of reflex, but his mind already went back to all the other people who had tried to use the Nemeton.

“Yeah. There’s always someone who will look at all this misery and see opportunity.” Scott walked up and put his hand on the stump. Things changed. There was nothing visible, but Theo couldn’t help but take a step back. “Someone could draw upon the power of the seven to conquer what’s left of the world.”

“So we came out here to check on it.”

Scott didn’t answer, lost in thought.

“Scott? Scott!”

The alpha lifted his hand from the tree, shaking his head. “It draws my focus. I check on the Nemeton at least once a week. When it’s nice out, I come more often to eat lunch. Mornings are spent taking care of the dead. Afternoons are spent looking for supplies. But that’s only if I don’t have visitors.”

“Good visitors or bad visitors?”

Scott turned to look at Theo. “Both. But we didn’t come out just to do this. Now comes the fun part.”

“The fun part?”

They went through the forest, but Scott had a destination in mind. They climbed up to where the Preserve met the cliffs. They walked steadily, the snow not being as much a problem as they thought.

Scott came to rest in the middle of a stand of pine. He pointed at one nearly twelve feet tall. “So what do you think?”

“Think. Of what?”

“The tree. Good enough?” 

Theo looked at the pine in front of Scott. “It looks fine.” 

“I thought so, too.” He began to chop into the trunk. He put alpha strength behind it, so it didn’t take very long for him to cut it down. 

“What are you doing?”

“It’s Christmas Eve, Theo.”

“We’re cutting down a Christmas tree? Seriously?”

“Why not?” Scott went over to the fallen tree. “Help me drag this back.” 

“Because …” Theo shook his arms at the world. 

“It’s Christmas Eve, we’re alive, and so I think we can celebrate. One of the ways people have celebrated for a couple of centuries at least is to put up a tree. Help me with this.”

They walked back through the town, and it was a little after noon when they finally got back to the Loft. Scott insisted on pulling the tree up before they had lunch. Theo kept his mouth shut, even though he wanted to say something.

**~*~**

He helped Scott get the tree into the stand. For the first time he could remember, Scott was fussy. He wanted the tree to be perfectly straight. Scott actually went up on the spiral staircase to look at it from above. It was mystifying.

Then he put on the decorations and, apparently, there is a specific order. “No, Theo, lights first, then garland, then ornaments, then tinsel.”

“Who makes up these rules?”

Scott looked up, smiling. “I think Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

“Do you really have enough electricity for Christmas lights?” Theo sat down on the couch.

“I budgeted. The batteries are nearly full. There’s a good wind on the roof and it was sunny for weeks.” Scott had explained that over the years he had installed both solar panels and wind turbines on the roof of the industrial building. With help, of course. He had also secured enough replacement parts for decades to come by locating local stores. 

“Is this really that important to you?”

Scott turned to Theo, walked over, and did that thing where he squatted down so he was on the same level. “It’s Christmas. It’s the birth of my Savior. It’s a celebration of life in the midst of death. It’s something I did with the people I loved. I can’t really think of anything more important than that. I’m not asking you to believe as I do, or even enjoy it as much as I do. You don’t have to help, if you don’t want to.”

“I didn’t say that,” Theo hesitated. “I … I just never had much use for it.”

“I know. I thought maybe you might want to try.”

“It’s kind of ridiculous, though, isn’t it? It’s a celebration of the birthday for someone who doesn’t exist. It’s a capitalist extravaganza and there is no capitalism. It’s something you do with your family …” Theo had allowed his bitterness to carry him too far. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up your family.”

“I still have a family. I have the pack.”

Theo opened his mouth and shut it again, but Scott noticed him doing it.

“She’s dead. It’s okay to say it.”

Knowing how close Scott was to his mother, Theo guessed that it absolutely wasn’t as okay as Scott made it sound. 

Scott did not turn to look at him. “Mom was infected, but she worked every day in the wards until she couldn’t. She didn’t run away. She helped others, even as it killed her.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I am, too. But I’m also proud.” He dug in the box for an antique ornament. “She did what she felt she had to.”

“Uhm … never mind.”

Scott read his mind. “I didn’t Bite her because I couldn’t. I told you I’ve done terrible things. I killed Nolan.”

“Nolan Holloway?”

“He was one of the first that got sick, and Liam begged me to Bite him. I didn’t have a good feeling about it, but I did it anyway. Turns out if you Bite someone and they’re already infected it’s pretty much a death sentence. The Bite can kill you if you’re too weak because it’s hard on the body, but the fact that the Bite is hard on the body helped the virus work faster. He died within an hour. At least he was unconscious.”

“That’s not your fault.” 

Scott shrugged. “You’re not the one who had to explain to the Holloways why their son died with claws and fangs and bleeding black blood from his eyes and ears.”

“Scott …”

“Go ahead and ask your other questions. I’d be curious too.”

“How many people did you lose?”

“Not as many as I could have.” He adjusted one of the garlands. “Beacon Hills was pretty average with the casualty rate.”

“Six people?”

“Seven people who weren’t supernatural.” Scott left the tree and went towards the sink. “No, I didn’t know any of them.”

Theo couldn’t think of anything to say so he didn’t say anything. 

“My mom. The Sheriff. Ms. Martin. Coach. Alan.” Scott poured himself a glass of water and drank it. “At least I got to say good-bye. I can only assume my dad didn’t make it.”

The chimera didn’t need to sniff to know what Scott was feeling. What surprised him is when Scott went over to the stereo and put a record on. It was ‘Silent Night.’

“How can you believe?”

Scott turned to him. “It’s easy.”

“If God existed, it let everyone die.”

“God didn’t kill humanity, humans did.” Scott said sharply, pointing at Theo. The alpha took a breath and then dropped his hand. “Smarter people than me would have to explain the details, but The End didn’t happen naturally. Someone made it as a weapon and lost control of it. Someone thought that what they wanted was more important than everybody else’s lives. I’ve dealt with people like that since I was sixteen.”

“That doesn’t explain why you believe.”

“Humans can be anything they put their mind to. Animals are determined by their natures and their capabilities, even the smartest ones. But humans can choose to do terrible things to each other for no other reason, or they can choose to be absolutely wonderful to each other for no other reason. It’s a gift. We were created in His image.”

“So you’re saying you believe God exists because humans were able to do this to themselves.”

“Alan died while I held his hand. He didn’t have to. You understand that, right? All he had to do was find three people who were already dying and who fit the requirements and he could have used the power of the Nemeton to save himself. Who cares if he would be a Darach? I wouldn’t. I wanted him … I _begged_ him.” Scott dashed the tears from his eyes. “And he told me that …”

“That life only matters because it ends.”

“No.” Scott made a face. “That’s what rich people said when they realized that one day they’d be bored with all their shit. Alan told me that life doesn’t end. It is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. If that’s true, he said, than how we live is far more important than how long we live, and he wasn’t going to abandon his beliefs to hold onto life. So, I believe in God and I celebrate the birthday of his incarnation. You can make fun of me now.”

Theo stood up. “I would never make fun of you. I … I don’t believe, but I didn’t …” He took a few steps forward. “My whole life has been mostly a nightmare. I can’t believe that a benevolent deity would look down and say, well Theo deserves this.”

“Stiles is alive.” Scott said quickly. “He’s alive. Do you know why?”

Theo shook his head. He hadn’t brought up Stiles because he assumed that the human was a casualty.

“The nogitsune created a new body for him, materialized it right out of the floor. But it’s not completely human. It’s more human than nogitsune, but it’s just enough nogitsune that the virus couldn't infect him. I thought I was going to lose him, but I didn’t, because a demon played a trick.”

“It’s a coincidence.”

“It’s a _miracle._ It’s the same reason we didn’t lose Mason. The possession by Valet changed him just enough that the virus didn’t take.”

“How can you say that?”

“I’m alive because Peter bit me. You’re alive because the Doctors took you. Yes, what happened to all of us was terrible, but it saved our lives as well. I’ll see Stiles and Mason and Corey and Liam and maybe Lydia this spring if she’s doing better, because we’re not human.” Scott swallowed. “Nothing is ever all good or all bad, even the terrible things that people do to us. That’s what makes me believe.”

“So, you’re going to celebrate this silly holiday? What’s next? We’re going to sing carols in front of the fire?” Theo couldn’t look Scott in the face. He hadn’t been intending to scold him or to challenge his beliefs, and he felt ungrateful. 

“Yes. I’m alive. I’m free. I have a roof over my head, I have food and clothing. I’ve done good things and I’ve done bad things, but I hope the good I’ve done far outweighs the bad. What’s wrong with trying to be happy, too?”

“Nothing.” Theo turned away. “Nothing’s wrong with being happy.”

Scott crossed the room and grabbed Theo by the shoulder. He spun him around. “What’s wrong with you trying to be happy?”

“You know what’s wrong with that.”

“No,” Scott shook his head, “No, I don’t.”

Theo laughed in his face, cruel and mocking. “I don’t deserve happiness! Do you think I’ve been a saint since The End? I’m not you. I didn’t set myself up in a building to help refugees or protect other people! I stole to eat. I killed to survive. If I wasn’t here, I’d probably be doing that very thing right now.”

“But it’s Christmas.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Theo exclaimed.

“Good little boys and girls get presents.” Scott said looking Theo directly in the eyes. “Bad little boys and girls get coal in their stockings.”

Theo goggled at him. 

“Sounds horrible, right? But for those kids, there was always next Christmas. Next Christmas, with the tree, and the ornaments, and the food, and the presents, and the carols. And the next Christmas. With family and friends. And the next Christmas. And the next Christmas. Even after the end of the world. There’s always another chance.”

In the silence after the speech, the music switched to Nat King Cole singing the Christmas Song. Theo chuckled ruefully at the timing.

“Not for me.”

Scott let go of him like he touched fire. “You know that’s not true.”

“I do know. Because it doesn’t matter how much you dress it up with these corpses of a dead economic system, a ripped off pagan ritual, and religious malarkey, it comes down to … some useless emotion.”

“Love.” Scott whispered. “It’s called love, Theo.”

“So, you see. Not for me.”

“Bullshit.” Scott shook his head. “I could love you. And you could love me.”

“What?”

Scott mugged at him and then walked into the kitchen. 

“What do you mean?”

“I know it’s only your second day here, but you’ve made yourself quite at home.”

“You want me gone?” Theo felt panic rising in his throat. 

Scott stuck his head out of the kitchen. “What in anything I’ve said in the last two days would imply that I want you gone? I’m not talking about what I want, I’m talking about what you want.”

“Oh. I came here …”

“Why did you come here, then? From … what used to be Idaho.”

Theo didn’t say anything and Scott went back into the kitchen. He rattled around for a bit and then came back out. 

“You came here for a reason.”

“I didn’t want to be alone.”

“Well, about two hundred miles by road, everyone else is at Bodega Bay.” Scott pointed in the direction of the ocean. “When it warms up, you can make it there in no time.”

“Maybe …”

“Maybe you don’t want to. You didn’t come all this way just to find people. You came here to find people who knew you. People who might trust you again. People like _me._ You can admit it.”

Theo very well couldn’t do that. “What are you doing?”

“Making instant cocoa. Not as good without milk, but it’ll hit the spot.”

It didn’t take long for the water to stop boiling. Scott emerged once again with two cups.

“Maybe I don’t want to leave. Maybe I want to stay.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Scott smiled at him. “If you can’t say the words I said, that’s okay, too. You can drink your cocoa and help me finish decorating the tree. It’ll be the same thing.” 

Another song came on the radio, Scott began to sing along with Harry Belafonte. He obviously knew the words by heart.

**I heard the bells on Christmas Day  
Their old, familiar carols play,  
and wild and sweet  
The words repeat  
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! **

**I thought as how, this day had come,  
The belfries of all Christendom  
Had run so long  
The Unbroken Song  
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! **

“Do you know the words? You should sing it with me.”

“I don’t sing,” Theo protested. 

“Anyone can sing. It doesn't matter if you're bad at it. I’m not going to judge.” Scott took the star for the tree out of the box. “I think we’re going to spend a lot of time together, so … how can it hurt to try?”

“I’m not sure I want to spend that much time, if the price is listening to us caterwaul along with the radio. How long would I have to keep doing it?”

“I don’t know.” Scott smiled. “Maybe the rest of our lives.”

Sighing, Theo started up on the next verse.

**And in despair I bowed my head;  
"There is no peace on earth," I said;  
"For hate is strong,  
And mocks the song  
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" **

**Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:  
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;  
The Wrong shall fail,  
The Right prevail,  
With peace on earth, good-will to men." **

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_GU0_6qNjw


End file.
